Now Sweden and Finland are more likely to join NATO and Russia is threatening them with military action if they join... hoping all of this ends soon.

EDIT: Thinking about this more, Finland and Sweden are already in the EU so joining NATO wouldn't change too much, but it would mean America could get involved too if they are attacked.

It is hard to believe there are some Americans defending the actions of Russia. Absolutely insane.

Hey, they can make all the threats they want, I just hope Russia is ready to throw down all of NATO, whenever they pull that shit with them.

Not for me, it isn't.

I think those Americans have financial interests with Russia, similar to how American businesses kowtow to China.

Meanwhile, it feels like Russia will completely take over Ukraine even faster than the Taliban retook Afghanistan. In the case of the former, it's not a lack of will to fight, but the fact that Russia has a lot more weaponry.

We're not providing much support to Ukraine. It's not a NATO member, and it falls short of the requirements to join. Americans have no appetite for war either.

What will this mean when China decides to invade Taiwan?

so what's the consensus here on how this will develop? i know we can't get it a hundred percent right, since putin seems to have gone completely off the deep end mentally, so there's no telling what he'll do, but what are your assumptions?

personally, i think it'll be many arduous weeks of fighting until the russians take kiev, countries like poland, latvia and lithuania will get cold feet and bring back a mandatory draft just to be sure, but russia won't push any further than that. i think it's completely stupid of putin to start this war, but given that its not a NATO country he's fighting, he could technically pull it off. i don't believe he's stupid enough to invade a NATO country and get all of NATO on his ass, which would probably end in russia being completely annihilated if it happened. (it's possible. i didn't expect putin to invade the ukraine at all, but here we are)

additionally, i think there'll be internal resistance that russia will have to face. there's just no way they'll get away with starting a war without massive rebellions and civil war-type events transpiring in russia imo. maybe even a coup attempt. it doesn't take a genius to realize that the vast majority of people within russia are not supportive of this invasion at all.

Did Putin kill the Nazis yet?

We are at a dangerous point in history. This has late 1930's Europe all over it. Nazi Germany taking bites out of their neighbors while everyone else didn't do much, mind you today sanctions are being leveled against Russia for its actions but those can take years to really start taking effect and Putin just doesn't seem to care. Then then the allies put their foot down on Poland and told Hitler if he took action against the Poles there would be war. Hitler thought they were bluffing and attacked any way and Britan and France declared war. At some point a line is going to be drawn and Putin may just cross it. There will be a shit show for sure if that happens.

Well Taiwan has had years to prepare for that so it would be a bloody war. Amphibious invasions are also a lot harder to do then land ones.

Regarding this, if the "consequences" are an invasion:

• Sweden and Finland would have a tight grasp in the Baltic Sea so the Russian navy in Kaliningrad would be essentially stuck there
• Sweden has a superior air force, and from what I've heard it's better than Russia's
• Sweden and Finland are EU members. EU members have a mutual defense clause. "If an EU country is the victim of armed aggression on its territory, the other EU countries have an obligation to aid and assist it by all the means in their power, in accordance with Article 51 of the United Nations Charter."
• No idea if Swedes and Finns really want war tho. Up to them.

Either way, if Russia invades Scandinavia, RIP BOZO

What's so misleading about it? Its well within Vladimir Putin character to use nuclear waste to fuck up ukraine in some way maybe not destroy it. Even if Belarus is collateral damage. What's lukashenko going to do? He's vladdy's bitch.

i've seen enough of the underbelly of ""lefties"" (tankies and the dumb dumb left, as they're generally called) to know that a lot of them really, had an ideology that was truly limited to "anything that hurts america is good"

and i've seen enough far right folk who will clap like trained seals if a nation hurts the people they don't like (like homosexuals, for example)

it does not surprise me in the slightest that these two groups come together to at least tacitly support a nation that both harms an important american alliance and has shown intent to slaughter degenerate (aka LGBT folk)

as much as i shit about folk on here, at the very least y'all haven't seemed to side with an openly fascist invasion as it's happening, so i commend y'all for that

Idk how anyone can take the West seriously at this point. Their promises mean nothing, they knifed Ukraine in the back by pushing NATO membership instead of neutrality without backing it up, just like they knifed Gaddafi in the back, and just like they will do to Taiwan, and many others before. And all they can talk about back home is their alleged moral superiority. The sheer decadence on display.

And of course European countries like Sweden and the UK are closing their borders to Ukranian refugees. The only people not deserving of their endless pathological altruism are white Europeans lmao. I guess they don't serve the end goals of the mass immigration agenda like others do.

BASED

Sweden has Finland as a meatshield and Finland doesn't want to provoke Russia. I wouldn't say joining NATO is more likely now than it was before this shitstorm.

And that threat... I don't lie much when I claim that they make these kind of outbursts like at least once a year. It's hard to take them seriously, even now.

I lean towards the option where EU throws us to the wolves, but I don't want to end up in a situation that tells me if I was right or wrong about it.

That's because the true subhumans are Russians and wanting to yell CYKA BLYAT at the top of our lungs when we march upon Moscow!

But in honesty @gario I've been watching left tube and Jason Unruhe the Canadian commie, fellow traveler are all supporting Russia in this "because neo nazis" which is like one or two groups in Ukraine, its fucking crazy how they're trying to justify this.

I'm interested to see what Vaush has to say as I haven't looked yet as I'm watching YT videos on how low voltage wiring, circuits and jumpers work.

Such a stupid buzzword with no meaning anymore. When we can't define what we say, how can we ever say anything?

you will be pleased to know he is one of the few lefties that has been vehemently against russian imperialism this entire time, basically saying american intelligence has been spot on and to stop being dumbass "i hate americans" lowest common denominator troglodytes

he's been very active on the issue, streaming 8 hours a day for about the last week giving live updates on the situation

and yes, jason unruhe is a tankie piece of shit, always has been nothing but an american hating larper - never has been a space in my heart for tankie garbage, get em' outta here

as for how low voltage works, pay attention to your connections, know that parallel connections maintain voltage and series connections maintain amperage

So how long do you think this whole ordeal will last? Hell are the other countries going to get involved anyway?

I hope Simo Häyhä left some descendants.

Current map of the situation

It's going to just get worse in next few days, what we saw was just the beginning of an invasion. Air-to-ground attacks, destroying key buildings/structures, and taking over strategic territories.

Once a significant number of Russian ground troops make their way throughout other parts of the land, and Ukrainian troops (and the 18-60 year old males who aren't allowed to leave) engage in direct combat with each other. Yes, I'm aware this is already happening, but I mean on a greater magnitude.

This has got me thinking of how thankful that it's not my home that's being invaded and seeing a war in my neighborhood. One can only wait and see what there is to come.

By the way: I know this has been said before, but I'll say it again. Fuck you, Belarus, and fuck you for allowing Russia to use your land as another way into the country.

Ukrainian Air Force apparently manages to shoot down an IL-76 transporting over a hundred paratroopers towards Kyiv

Yeowch.

Hopefully the people of blue and yellow are giving Putin a hard time. The fact that he's been threatening Finland and Sweden for looking at joining NATO really paints a picture of a man completely off his rocker. Young men sent in to fight and perish in a madman's war ought to rile up the populace back home, assuming government censorship doesn't go full-on INGSOC.

Ukrainians are gonna need a whole lot more sunflower seeds, maybe they can borrow some of mine?

So did the US stock market, which feared, at first, that any harsher sanctions against Russia would impact the global markets. We are a global economy, after all. What is felt in one part of the world would be felt by us. Since Russia is the 2nd largest oil exporter in the world, it would affect gas prices every where, even it actually didn't affect the supply. It's why a line of cars to a nearby gas station was way down the street - though, while gas price per barrel did go up, stocks for it were down.

The point is, no one likes high gas prices, because it will add to the already high inflation people are expeinceing - and that is not good in an election year. And sad to say, no one cares enough about Ukraine to go that far against Russia - not when they are the 2nd largest oil exporter in the world, and many European countries rely on them for their energy needs. And while the US may not feel the effects of Russian oil as much as many European countries do, the US can't enforce any sanctions, of any kind, without their help to enforce those sanctions.

And this just came out: U.S. to sanction Putin directly, White House says

if nato gets their shit together, and russia touches either the EU or any Nato territory, the kremlin is gonna have a thousand nukes up its ass.

i mean, sure, russia is powerful and all, but can it take on the entirety of NATO? surely from the russian point of view, that is not viable at all, you cant fight the entire planet and expect to win.

well that's good to know.

oh my god right? that dude is something else Tankie, he goes on Iranian sponsored news networks as a "commentator", he engages in Soviet revisionism on how it wasn't so bad. Him, Fellow Traveler and the Engelist are three of the worst, I mean for Christ sake Gario THE YOUNG FUCKING TURKS ARE DOING A BETTER JOB THAN ANYBODY ELSE ON THIS.

Teh Yougn Turks are calling it how it is how their won't be military intervention and any REAL sanctions placed on Russia in fear of effecting the US economy which wouldn't be that significant, but because how the government is bought off its not going to happen.

which is why resistors are used for normally open and closed circuits! lol we're such nerds.

TYT was actually surprisingly poor on their coverage on this before Russia announced the war, but they're pretty quick to correct themselves when they're wrong.

I dunno who the other two people are, but with a name like "Engelist" they sound like larping morons.

Honestly, part of me wishes that Belarus just join with Russia already since it's been so content to be Russia's lapdog for decades. But Lukashenko will do whatever his boss, Putin, tells him. It must be humiliating to be Belarussian. Honestly, I'd have more respect for him if he were to just unite his country with Russia than to continue pretending to be independent.

But my smidgeon of sympathy for Belarus aside, yes, screw them for allowing themselves to be nothing more than Russia's pawn as it tries to gobble up part of Ukraine.

We should have saw this coming.

When Ivan Drago came back to torment Rocky in Creed 2, that should have been the first clue.

yeah but to be fair everyone else did too at least they corrected themselves they had their eggs in taking the breakaway provinces not the whole fucking basket, which is probably why they did minimal coverage.

they're your average Tankies larping as ML's or M3W going on about "the revolution", it's nonsense.

Well @gario, @edyKel and @zachary, if it were me from my magical map here what I would do is this:

-Incentivize Finland to join NATO, Military equipment and a one time Foreign Aid Deal (like we do Israel) of say $5B to $10B, if Finland joins Sweden will follow and all Nordic countries will be for the most part EU and NATO members.

-If Finland joins NATO as a NATO and EU member if they are attacked by Russia full force can be applied against Russia as the EU has separate defense accords on top of NATO, there is also the Nordic Defense Cooperation, which is a defense contract of all nordic countries that have a defense pact which means mess with one you mess with Denmark Iceland Norway, Sweden and Finland.

-Add additional EU members get Georgia, Turkey, and the UK back in, more NATO members that are in the EU the stronger the bloc is economically and militarily, and stopping letting Germany have a say to stop enlargement of the EU and NATO they're Russian puppets. Having Turkey and Georgia join the EU would be economic boon to the EU due to its access to the middle east and the Caucuses and having Georgia Turkey abandon the Turkish Lira and the Georgian Lari for the Euro would mean two less competing currencies and strengthening the Euro.

-Blockade all Russian Military at key choke point which would be Denmark and Turkey so the Russian Military cannot leave the Baltic and Black Sea this can be done because its territorial water and not international.

• same as above but for any cargo vessels registered and flying the russian flag.

-Speed up the process for Georgia and offer Azerbaijan to join NATO they're in the process but having that southern flank and access to the Caspian Sea will be crucial to offset Russia, Iran and the CTSO.

Edit: holy crap is that map compressed lol.

I think the biggest reason why Belarus has their independence yet simp so hard for Russia is simple, it gives Russia more clout (or the appearance of it) on the world stage, while Belarus would still have their bigger brother to cling to if anyone push back on them. That, and Lukashenko is a total tankie at heart and has ran Belarus like a total leftover of the USSR, hence why they are called Europe’s last dictatorship. (Until now at least)

In all this, we should be reminded that much of the people in Belarus and Russia did not war with Ukraine and to become pariahs of the world in the process. They are just as horrified at all this as much as we are and on some level, did not even know that Lukashenko and Putin would sink that low just to return to the dark days of the Soviet Union.

Now that I have gotten that out of the way, all of the Pro-Russian tankies who defended them invading Ukraine can go fuck themselves with a rusty hook, and let the Ukrainians fuck them up any way they see fit.

This is a nice plan and all; if countries have not developed nukes.